Community members are looking for answers after a longtime Vallejo park volunteer spent hours in the hospital following an arrest on Wednesday.
Myrna Hayes, 69, was arrested by Vallejo police officers around 9 p.m. Wednesday while she says she was conducting her nightly lockup routine at a trail in the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve on Mare Island in Vallejo.
Hayes was booked into Solano County Jail in Fairfield just after 10 p.m. for obstruction of a police officer, according to booking logs.
Cellphone video of the arrest taken by Hayes’ friend, Roxann Reyes, shows two Vallejo police officers handcuffing Hayes, at one point appearing to hit Hayes’ head against the side of her car before leading her to their patrol car — one of three police cruisers with bright lights on at the scene.
“I have no broken bones. But I ache all over.”
— Myrna Hayes, Longtime volunteer with the Mare Island Heritage Trust
In an interview Friday, Hayes said she was released around 9 a.m. Thursday, and spent much of the day in the hospital getting X-rays and CT scans. In a social media post, Reyes said Hayes was “forcefully arrested.”
“I have no broken bones,” said Hayes. “But I ache all over.”
A spokesperson for the Vallejo Police Department on Friday said he was still gathering information and was unable to comment on the arrest.
Community defends Hayes
Hayes helped found the 130-acre preserve in 2008 on a former U.S. Navy munitions site, now a draw for hikers and nature lovers. Hayes said she has performed lockup duties regularly since 2008 through a nonprofit organization called the Mare Island Heritage Trust.
“She’s been doing this for decades,” said former Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell, a practicing attorney who Hayes called for advice following the arrest.
“She has an agreement to do these things, day in day out. She’s always there — she’s a very strong community supporter,” said McConnell.
After watching video of the arrest, McConnell said Friday that he was concerned about how senior citizens are treated by police.
“What I observed was not, in my opinion, what should be proper police practices,” he said.
What happened before arrest
On Friday, Hayes said she and Reyes were driving in Hayes’ Honda CR-V to perform a sweep of the trailhead to ensure no cars or hikers were still in the park before locking the entrance. The two women stopped the car at least once to take photos of the sunset, said Hayes.
“I drive in, make a loop, clear anybody and anything — trash, whatever,” said Hayes.
When she saw bright lights behind her, she stopped her car to get out and tell the driver that the park was closed. Hayes said she didn’t realize it was a patrol car.
In the video, when Reyes asked why Hayes was being arrested, one of the officers responded, “We got a call from the army reserve building that you two were over there and it looked like you guys were casing the place.”
The officer also said Hayes approached him, compelling him to make the arrest.
“She ran up on us, instantly started causing problems. My partner asked her to step away and she wouldn’t,” said the officer in the video.